No Longer Alone
by TheLeo1110
Summary: Aegir is just your average Viking. Oh, there's the constant fighting, the raiding, and who can forget ... the dragons. During his return home to Berk atop a new dragon, Aegir finds something awful has happened at Berk ...


_**Foreword: **The idea for this story came about years ago, sometime after the fourth season on Race to the Edge premiered. This was a few years before How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was announced, and before all of the canonical elements it introduced were a thing, so this story contradicts the canon of that film. This project has been very off and on again, but i wanted to keep what I'm writing as true to my original vision as possible. That being said, some elements from HTTYD3 are going to make their way into this story. Not plot/thematic elements, but world building and lore stuff. Some of the Night Fury's abilities, the Hidden World itself, the dragon-scale armors the riders wear, etc, but the Light Fury will remain absent from this story. For better or for worse (I'll let you decide which), the Light Fury is the reason the plot of the third film happens. After being introduced to Toothless and the two bond, Toothless longs to stay in the Hidden World, and Hiccup realized he needed to leave. All of the dragons, in turn, return to their ancestral home. Having the Light Fury in my story would just introduce an expedited version of The Hidden World's plot, and I don't want that. I want to tell a unique story. The events of this story take place fourteen years after the events of the second film, in an alternate universe in which the events of the third film never happened._

* * *

It was a very dark night. Almost pitch black. I could barely see Skyline, who I was literally sitting atop of, but then again, she did blend into the blackness of the night, even though there was a faint glimmer of moonlight piercing through the thick clouds, reflecting off the ocean and illuminating her belly. Only because of that moonlight could I see how fast we were really going. The ripples on the water seemed to whiz by so fast I could barely see them. All of the rock formations in the distance went right by us, too.  
We rode near to the surface of the water, creating a tiny wake that followed us as we sped along. "I hope we're going the right direction, Skyline. Everyone at Berk will be so excited to see us."  
She glanced back towards me, her large, blue eyes meeting mine, as she kept flying and let out a quiet little moan, almost like a purr. I looked back forward, and I saw something in the distance. Berk came into view, but only because it was set ablaze.

"Hold up, Skyline ... "  
I pulled back a little, and she climbed up higher into the air with heavy flaps of her wings, keeping us suspended in one spot. We were a good distance away from the shore and we were cloaked by the night. Out of sight. I pulled out my spyglass and took a look through. The first thing I saw was the large statue in the back of the village built in honor of the late Stoick the Vast. With a chip in his beard and an orange-red glow reflecting off of him, he overlooked the inferno below. People were scurrying everywhere, trying to avoid all of the collapsing buildings. Only the Great Hall still stood; every other building was reduced to a pile of ash. In the dock sat a Dragon Hunter ship, with two more sailing away in opposite directions. Not them again ...

I looked down onto the docks, and I saw him. Chief Hiccup. He was being held back by two hunters, and even though Hiccup has definitely put on a little more muscle since he became chief, they were both almost twice his size. They held his arms behind his back, and he was struggling with all of his might to escape. He was yelling ... something. I couldn't hear anything going on down there, but I could read Hiccup's lips:  
"Toothless! Toothless!"  
He was facing away from the village, out towards the sea, but it was too dark to see what he was looking at. Was Toothless in trouble? Was he ... caged?

* * *

With all his might, Hiccup struggled and struggled but the hunters holding him down had him locked. Toothless was acting almost like a rabid animal trying to escape his cage. He was slamming his entire body weight into the cage's walls, but he couldn't even begin to tip it over. Nor did his plasma blasts have any effect on the metal. Dragon-proof. All of a sudden, though, all of his commotion stopped, almost on command. Then his already narrow pupils became almost slits, as he looked up into the blackness of the night. To the right, then to the left. He was looking for something. No, someone ...

As he let out a menacing growl, the spines on his back opened up, and his back, mouth, and head began to emanate a bright blue glow as he let out his mighty Alpha roar that echoed throughout the archipelago. The sound resonated, and came back several times. Something was out there, and he needed to prove himself. Prove his dominance.

* * *

"Does he see us, Skyline?" At this point, I was definitely able to see Toothless. The glow also revealed the cage around him, and hunters were trying to load him onto the ship, but couldn't due to Toothless's uneasiness. Even as the Alpha, with his strength increased tenfold, he was still powerless to escape.

"Alright, let's get them out of there, Skyline. Stick to the shadows, we'll make a few strafe runs."  
Skyline took a hard left, and got a good distance away from Berk, then began her approach. Fast. Very fast. Skyline's speed always amazed me. It seems that every time I ride her, she breaks her own record and gets faster and faster. As we neared Berk, the smell of the smoke began to burn the inside of my nose.

* * *

As Toothless's gaze shifted towards the right, so did Hiccup's, trying to see what was out there. What's gotten into you, bud?  
Then came a sound. A very distinct sound that he knew very well, but had always heard it from Toothless's back. Hiccup hadn't heard it from the ground since ...

"Night Fury! Get down! Night Fury!" A random hunter began yelling, only to be cut off by a giant explosion ripping through the ship Toothless was being loaded onto.

"What in Odin's name ... "  
Hiccup was trying to comprehend what was going on when he suddenly found himself weightless as he was being lifted off the ground, grabbed by the arms by a dragon. He couldn't tell what kind, but it was quickly ascending towards the clouds. Once above, the moonlight much more clearly illuminated his captor: a Night Fury.  
"Hiccup!" Someone's riding this Night Fury? I know that voice ...  
"Wait ... Aegir? Where have you ... How did you ... Where did you ... "  
"No time to explain now. What's going on here?"  
"Dragon Hunters. They just came out of nowhere."  
"Who else has been captured?"  
"The other riders and their dragons. They've been put on separate ships sailing in opposite direction."  
"Alright. Climb up here."

* * *

I placed my hand on her head, quietly saying "It's okay, he won't hurt us." Skyline released one arm, and Hiccup climbed up onto her back, taking a seat behind me.  
"I don't think I've ever ridden a Night Fury without a saddle before."  
"It's not that bad, but you're gonna want to hold on." Hiccup did as Skyline made another strafe run, clearing the area around Toothless's cage. A few Hunters fell into the water, but most were knocked down to the ground, dead or unconscious. We came back around, slowing to a crawl at the docks as Hiccup practically jumped off Skyline, running to Toothless's cage. Skyline and I climbed into the night again for another strafe run. I took a second while we were at our peak altitude to appreciate the beauty of the sky. Then Skyline pulled me down as we quickly dove, followed soon by her pulling up at the last second, sending out multiple plasma shots that took out small groups of hunters throughout Berk. Skyline returned us to the docks, where Hiccup was still struggling with the cage. He couldn't get it open any better than Toothless could. I couldn't just leave him here helplessly.  
"Stand back, Hiccup!" Visibly confused, Hiccup stood next to Skyline as her mouth filled with a purple-blue flame. Bolts of lightning arced around her body, all leading into her mouth. The charge built up into a blast that burned with such heat - hotter than a Deadly Nadder's magnesium flame - that the shot completely destroyed the lock on the cage, and began to melt the surrounding metal. Hiccup ran to the cage, opening the door, but not without singeing his hand from the hot metal. Toothless nudged the door open the rest of the way, not breaking eye contact with Skyline.  
"Hiccup, Skyline and I will take the ship headed East. You and Toothless head west."

Before Hiccup could even get a word out, Skyline's wings lifted her up into the air in one fell swoop. We stuck low to the water, creating a large wake behind us. Yet again, Skyline broke her speed record. Just how fast can you even go?

The ship was getting closer and closer. Skyline latched onto the ship's hull, and she climbed towards the top of the ship, but was careful not to peer her head over the edge. We waited as I listened to the hunters. I was waiting for them to let down their guard. Was waiting for them to ...  
"Now!"


End file.
